


Sound of Distress

by idiotbrothers



Category: Big Hero 6 (2014)
Genre: Bickering, Flashbacks, Gen, Light Angst, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-10
Updated: 2014-11-10
Packaged: 2018-02-24 20:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2595203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idiotbrothers/pseuds/idiotbrothers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snapshots of the Hamada brothers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sound of Distress

"Ow!" Hiro exclaimed, making Tadashi whirl around instantly and say, "Hey, you alright?"

Hiro picked himself up off the floor and rubbed at his knee, smearing blood over the hem of his shorts. "Geez, Hiro," Tadashi said, crouching down to take a closer look at the cut. "I'm gonna need to patch you up at home. Think you'll be okay to walk?"

" 'M fine," Hiro said, smacking at Tadashi's hands when they hovered over his knee, even as his bottom lip wobbled. Tadashi crossed his arms mock-seriously and said, "You can cry if you need to, little bro. When _I_ was six it was all I ever did. Or so Aunt Cass tells me." 

"I'm not a baby," Hiro said, nose turned up precociously. "You totally are," Tadashi said, grabbing Hiro around his waist and hoisting him up to sit on his shoulders. " _Tadashi_ ," Hiro whined, pushing his hands through Tadashi's hair and swinging his legs in protest, "Put me _down_."

"Your awesome big brother's doing you a favor; accept it. Cry quietly into my hat if you must." With that, Tadashi plucked his cap off his own head and reached his arm up to plop it onto Hiro's, patting it on firmly before starting to walk them back home. "You're so dumb," Hiro muttered grumpily into Tadashi's hair, but he held on tight anyway, and when they'd gotten back and Tadashi had carefully treated the scrape and pressed a kiss to the band-aid when he'd finished, Hiro gave him a watery smile as a thank-you. 

* * *

"Ow, crap!" 

Tadashi set his book down and glanced over at Hiro curiously, taking in the three pencils poking out of his messy hair and the way he'd stuck his thumb into his mouth, irritated frown affixed to his face. "What's wrong? Besides you looking like a textbook mad scientist, I mean. Would it kill you to get a haircut when Aunt Cass asks?"

"Shut up, my hair's fine. And you could show a _little_ concern for the _wound_ I just sustained."

"Uh-huh," Tadashi said nonchalantly. "Paper cut?" Hiro made a face at him, but didn't dispute it, squinting at his thumb before sticking it back into his mouth and refocusing on whatever it was he'd been scrawling on a piece of paper. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?" Tadashi asked, grinning at Hiro's automatic, "Ew" and saying, "That's right, 'cause you're a big bad bot-fighting champ. What's a paper cut to the king of the San Fransokyo underground?" 

"I know you're making fun of me. You're not subtle," Hiro said, chewing on his thumbnail and scratching something out on his paper. "Just wait and see, Tadashi. Soon, I really _will_ be the best of the best. You won't be laughing then, will you, nerd?" 

"You're the nerd, nerd," Tadashi scoffed, flicking a stray gum wrapper in his brother's direction. Hiro's mouth twitched into a smile despite himself, and Tadashi shook his head amusedly and turned a page of his book, pleasant mood faltering as he wondered, not for the first time, about what Hiro would do with his life once he graduated high school next month. Surely he didn't plan on spending all his time on bot fights...right?

* * *

The night that Tadashi died, Hiro couldn't sleep.

He couldn't eat, couldn't think without spinning himself into maddening webs of morbid conjecture, couldn't do anything but sit slumped on his bed and avoid looking towards the empty space where his brother should've been. He wanted to cry. He _should_ have been crying; it felt like the appropriate response, considering the circumstances. And he'd read somewhere that crying was thought to relieve stress by cleansing the body of prolactin and leucine-enkaphalin.

But he couldn't summon a single tear forth, eyes treacherously dry and heart numb. 

He wanted to break something, but he was afraid of touching anything in the room, wanted it to remain exactly as it was when Tadashi had last been in it. Clasping his fist to his mouth, Hiro tried to will down a sudden surge of nausea, his eyes shut tight against the familiar images swimming jarringly through his brain, every one of his favorite memories featuring Tadashi because Tadashi had been _his_ favorite, and he didn't know how he was supposed to do this, get up the next morning like there was any reason to now that his brother was-- 

"Where are you?" Hiro hissed, clenching his fingers so tightly that they ached.

_You're supposed to be here when I'm hurt. You're supposed to offer to kiss it better._


End file.
